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952-361-4931 http://edaction.org

March 2, 2007

March 2nd report.
Your contacts are making a difference!

To keep updated on legislative activity,
check the EdAction website for current reports.

There's no question that your contacts are having an effect at the Capitol. You are the backbone of our work. Please keep it up. Legislators who are authoring the most onerous bills are realizing that they cannot do this full frontal assault on parents and families that they intended to do. One example is HF 302/ SF 274. See below for details.

However, one Republican Senator commented this week that there aren't many people scheduling visits with them this year--so far. You can change that. Make an appointment to go over some issues with your Representative and Senator. Do the same for any members of the committees hearing these bills, both House and Senate. Take a day to make the rounds, and bring a friend or two with you. It sends a powerful message.

Find Your House Member and Contact Information Here.

Legislation changes fast and frequently as bills move through committees. Don't be embarrassed about not being up-to-the-minute. Lawmakers need to get the message that there is real resistance to the direction they're headed on some of these very serious issues.

One example of how your calls are making a difference:
An advocacy group for the dangerous, unscientific, and unreliable universal mental screening program, Columbia TeenScreen, put out an emergency alert to its members:

"EdWatch has been attacking the bill that would fund the Columbia TeenScreen program...[They] state that screening 'will result in false labeling of children that will increase unnecessary treatment costs for already overburdened public programs, particularly Medicaid.' You can visit the EdWatch site at www.edwatch.org. Their members from around the country have been bombarding legislators urging them to 'oppose funding for TeenScreen, an unscientific survey that violates parental rights and leads to unnecessary use of ineffective and dangerous psychotropic medications for our children.' ...We rarely ask people to write to an elected officials that isnít 'theirs' but we need all of these legislators to know that there are many Minnesotans who support TeenScreen.

As you can see, we rely on your action to have an impact. You are taking up the national outcry against this horrible program that includes:

The Alliance for Human Research Protection

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

Bill of Rights Foundation

Citizens Health Alliance for Truth

Concerned Women for America

Eagle Forum

EdWatch Nevada

Indiana Voice for the Family

The International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

The Liberty Coalition

The Liberty Committee

MindFreedom International

The National Physicians Center

Republican Liberty Caucus

March 2nd report on the bills we have brought to your attention:

1. HF 306/SF 148 (Read, Minnesota Introduces Legislation to fund TeenScreen)
HF 306 has not been heard. It is referred to the House K-12 Finance Division. However, the same language is included in a House omnibus bill (HF 196). HF 196 was heard Friday, February 23rd in the House Mental Health Division.

An amendment was introduced by Rep. Tingelstad to remove TeenScreen funding from the bill, and her amendment failed after many misstatements by other legislators about the accuracy and supposed parental protection were put forth. (Listen to the committee audio here and see our upcoming rebuttal to the misinformation put forth in that hearing).

The bill then passed and was referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee and then will go to a finance committee.

SF 148, Senate Authors: Torres Ray; Marty; Moua, is part of an omnibus bill that was heard on Monday, February 26th in the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee.

TeenScreen was removed from the Health and Human Services omnibus appropriations bill to allow it to go through the proper education committees, this time as separate legislation. (SF 789, Referred to the Senate Finance Committee.)

Dr. Effrem testified against the psychiatric screening pilot program intended for children of parents receiving welfare benefits. In addition to all of the usual problems with inaccuracy in young children leading to the over-identification of especially poor and minority children and the over-use of dangerous and ineffective medications, this program targets children specifically because they are in poor families, which is discriminatory and stigmatizing.

Sen Betsy Wergin (R-Princeton) then offered an amendment to remove the psychiatric screening part of the pilot program and vigorously defended it despite the rebuttal time offered National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and another group. Author Sen. John Marty (D_Roseville) opposed the amendment. It failed on a close vote with Senators Wergin, Fischbach, Koering, and Lynch voting in support and Senators Marty, Torres-Ray, Doll, Lourey, Higgins, and Prettner-Solon voting against when a division was called on the voice vote. The other committee members were not present at the time of the vote. Senator Wergin and those voting for the amendment deserve great thanks.

Your involvement in this is making a difference. Please stay engaged!

2. HF 169/ SF 92 (Read, Infant Mental Screening Alert)
HF 169, Authors: Slawik; Bly; Peterson, S.; Johnson; Moe; Slocum; Abeler; Ruud; Benson; Welti; Ward; Hortman; Bunn.
HF 169 passed the E-12 Education Policy committee, and it was referred to the Early Childhood Learning Finance Division.

Since our last update, author Rep. Slawik has decided NOT to remove the infant mental health language and does not wish to consider doing so until conference committee. The bill was heard on Thursday, March 1st, at 4:00 p.m. in the Early Learning Finance Division during the blizzard when there were no members of the public to testify for or against either bill on the agenda. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus early childhood finance bill. Please ask Rep. Slawik to remove at least the word "behavioral" from the bill as Senator Bonoff did. (See below.)

The Senate version, SF 92, was heard Monday, February 19, in the Senate Education Committee. The chief author, Senator Terri Bonoff, amended out the word "behavioral," so the Senate version no longer has the overt reference to infant mental health from the federal program, as discussed in our alert. She is to be thanked. It was referred to the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee.

3. HF 302/SF 274 (Read, An Assault on Families and Freedom) Significant changes:

HF 302, House Authors: Peterson, S.; Slawik; Greiling; Bly; Dominguez; Morrow; Benson; Ruud; Clark; Kahn; Wardlow; Simon; Ward; Hilstrom; Tillberry. Rep. Demmer removed his name from the bill. He is to be thanked.

HF 302 was bought up briefly in the House E-12 Education Policy Committee on Thursday, Feb 15th, and was laid over for further consideration. Some committee members demonstrated serious reservations.

It was heard again on Tuesday, February 27th. ( Listen to the streaming audio or download MP3.) A "delete all" amendment removed many of the most offensive parts to the bill. Changes are the result of the personal action and involvement of parents and taxpayers. While there are many items we oppose in HF 302, significant positive changes include:

A "plan" to administer the controversial kindergarten readiness assessment to all preschoolers is replaced with "encouragement" to administer the assessment.
Rating private and religious programs, including "family, friends and neighbors, in compliance with the controversial and biased state outcomes (Early Child Indicators of Progress) has been removed. These outcomes include gender identity training, diversity training, environmentalism, group identity, and careers;
The new layer of government programming to "transition" all children from preschool to kindergarten has been removed. The No Child Left Behind-type (AYP) progress quotas for preschool have been removed.
Putting the state outcome based standards and their assessments for 0 to 5 into law has been eliminated. These outcomes are a rebirth of the failed Profile of Learning content, and applying them to preschoolers.
Training parents has been removed. Home visiting has been removed. Psychiatrically screens infants and toddlers has been removed.

HF 302 has been referred to the House Finance Committee.

SF 274, Senate Authors: Saxhaug; Clark; Stumpf; Robling; Rummel, was heard in the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division on Tuesday, February 27th. A delete-all amendment to SF 274 made similar changes to those in the House version, HF 302. It has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

4. HF 585/SF 579 (Read, Bad Data Justifies Nanny State Expansion)
HF 585 Authors: Bly; Slawik; Murphy, E.; Wardlow; Morgan.
This bill had many, although not all of the same ugly features as HF 302. It was heard in the House E-12 Education Policy Committee on Feb 15th (EdWatch testified: link to full audio here). Some committee members on both sides of the aisle demonstrated serious reservations and even Chairman Carlos Mariani changed his recommendation from passing to sending it on to the Early Childhood Finance Committee without recommendation.

It was heard in the House Early Childhood Learning Finance Division on Tuesday, February 27th. Due to the concerns raised by E-12 Committee Members and your work to say NO to the nanny state in all its various forms, the "delete-all" amendment changed the bill considerably.

The amendment removed the implementation of the 0-5 "Profile for Preschoolers" content standards, the kindergarten readiness assessment expansion via "AYP" provisions, and the references to mental health. The bill still contains increased funding for home visiting and ECFE, despite the fact that neither of these programs have been shown in studies to increase the cognitive development of children, and both are expensive and or invasive. The focus of the bill still seems to be on the state telling parents how to raise children who "may be at risk of not being ready for kindergarten," which is not at all defined. While EdWatch commended Rep. Bly for his responsiveness, those concerns remain and were stated in testimony. The bill was laid over possible inclusion in the omnibus early childhood finance bill.

SF 579 Authors: Bonoff; Robling; Clark; Anderson.
Heard Monday, February 19, 2007 in the Senate Education Committee. It passed and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Senator Wergin has removed herself as an author of the bill. She is be thanked.
Heard in the Senate Finance Committee on Monday, February 26, 2007.

5. HF 595 /SF 434 (Read, Home Visiting Womb to Tomb Control) HF 595, House Authors: Laine; Clark; Murphy, E.; Bly; Ruud; Benson; Kahn; Slocum; Tschumper; Liebling, continues to be a very dangerous bill.

It was heard Thursday, February 22nd in the House Health and Human Services Committee. ( Listen to the streaming audio or download MP3.) The chief author of the bill removed the "universal" language of the home visiting bill, due to extensive public outcry. However, in a stealthy sleight of hand, other changes in the language continue to make HF 595 a home visiting program for ALL children. Existing law directs the existing home visiting program to low income families. The amended bill removes that targeting, and only prioritizes low income families.

The amended version also extends the program to prenatal and to all families "at risk" of going on welfare or "instability." Criteria for "at risk" include unspecified factors that are whatever the Commissioner determines. In other words, this bill continues to be a universal home visiting bill without using the word "universal." In fact the amendment specifically directs home visiting to be "systemic [affecting an entire system] outreach to families prenatally or at birth."

Other concerns with the bill are:

Expands the scope of the home visiting program by starting prenatally and requiring programs to link new parents to numerous government services, preschool and child care programs, mental health screening, social services of various kinds, and "group meetings at least once a month." This is a recipe for an explosion of more families becoming government-dependent. Government dependency has proved to be devastating to building cohesive families long term.
Parents are not informed that during a home visit, data is being collected on them, their home environment, their family and their relationships, and that the data is kept in their files. Nor are they informed in what databases their private data will be kept nor how it will be used.
Not all low-income parents need a home visit. Low-income families are prioritized, but focusing simply on income includes, for example, two parent families that sacrifice to keep mom at home, maybe so they can home school. Low income families are red-flagged as "at risk" for welfare dependency and targeted for visits from the state.
The child receives a data number (MN Automated Recording Student System - MARSS), the state educational data system, at the home visiting program that sends all data on that child on to a federal database (National Center on Educational Statistics) in Washington.
The bill allows data sharing between a full roster of government agencies of medical, mental health, home environment and family interaction data. It passed over some Republican opposition and is referred to the House Finance Committee.

SF 434, Authors: Bonoff; Clark; Robling; Saltzman; Berglin, has been referred to the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee. A hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 5, 2007 at 12:30 p.m. in Room 15 of the State Capitol.

6. HF 233, HF 417, and HF 804 (Read, Terrorism as taught by International Baccalaureate) These three International Baccalaureate bills were heard in the House E-12 Education Policy Committee on Tuesday, Feb 20th. Our report is here .

Streaming audio of the hearing can be heard here, or download MP3. All three bills were referred to the House K-12 Finance Division, where they were already heard on Thursday, February 22nd. They are waiting to be included in the House Education omnibus bill. EdWatch again testified against the bills. T

The Senate versions (SF 220, SF 448, and SF589) are referred to the Senate Education Committee. SF 448, which sets up the IB for all elementary and middle school students in the South St. Paul School District, is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in Room 123 of the State Capitol

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952-361-4931 / http://edaction.org

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